Extreme warp and light lag

[Joseph Paul]

Happened to read a power write up that gave an instant and reliable Warp to any point in the Milky Way galaxy. 600+ points. Seems legit...

The Warper looks into the night sky, picks a star that is 30,000 light years away (with his Telescopic vision....) and warps there. Does he end up occupying an empty stretch of space or finds himself at the wrong star because where he sees his target star is where it was 30,000 years ago?

I am tempted to temper even god-like capabilities with information lag induced by light speed. It is a handy explanation for why the still extant god-like beings haven't taken over all of the Universe - yet.

Now what would be necessary to get around that lack of information about where a stellar body is now?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Happened to read a power write up that gave an instant and reliable Warp to any point in the Milky Way galaxy. 600+ points. Seems legit...

The Warper looks into the night sky, picks a star that is 30,000 light years away (with his Telescopic vision....) and warps there. Does he end up occupying an empty stretch of space or finds himself at the wrong star because where he sees his target star is where it was 30,000 years ago?

I am tempted to temper even god-like capabilities with information lag induced by light speed. It is a handy explanation for why the still extant god-like beings haven't taken over all of the Universe - yet.

Now what would be necessary to get around that lack of information about where a stellar body is now?

Perception or knowledge not limited by the speed of light.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Happened to read a power write up that gave an instant and reliable Warp to any point in the Milky Way galaxy. 600+ points. Seems legit...

The Warper looks into the night sky, picks a star that is 30,000 light years away (with his Telescopic vision....) and warps there. Does he end up occupying an empty stretch of space or finds himself at the wrong star because where he sees his target star is where it was 30,000 years ago?

I am tempted to temper even god-like capabilities with information lag induced by light speed. It is a handy explanation for why the still extant god-like beings haven't taken over all of the Universe - yet.

Now what would be necessary to get around that lack of information about where a stellar body is now?

Add a "FTL" (Faster than Light) Enhancement to his Telescopic Vision. There are a few Advantages that may have such an enhancement, out of memory I dont remember which, but you can use that. That way the looker will see the entire galaxy as it is NOW, not how it was some 70.000 years ago.

Or he could buy ungodly amounts of the Astronomy skill to calculate where the star really is... But preferably, he could do so with a computer dedicated to it.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

Or he could buy ungodly amounts of the Astronomy skill to calculate where the star really is... But preferably, he could do so with a computer dedicated to it.

Yeah Astronomy, Mathematics (Applied?), and Intuitive Mathematcian would all be useful here. Wonder if could add a Cosmic to 3D Spatial Sense.

[khorboth]

For most things, you can get away with Roll required: Astrogation.

If you want realism, I'd have a roll for how much they are off by based on distance & familiarity. Unless they know how many stars went nova or collapsed in the last (distance) years, then they'll have some drift. 30 years of drift is nothing. But the Milky Way is 105k light years wide. 10k years could be real drift if your calculations are off because some stars are pulling wrong. And you just can't know about it.

On the other hand, we have to ask: Does this add to the fun? Would it be easier to just say: 2d-2 jumps to get where you're going?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by khorboth

On the other hand, we have to ask: Does this add to the fun? Would it be easier to just say: 2d-2 jumps to get where you're going?

Yeah, and as you get closer or different angles you can refine your map and coordinates.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Yeah Astronomy, Mathematics (Applied?), and Intuitive Mathematcian would all be useful here. Wonder if could add a Cosmic to 3D Spatial Sense.

Computing an ephemeris on the fly at 30K ly would be a mind blowing multi-body problem. Cosmic 3-D Spatial Sense is something I can see. Perhaps a Cosmic Gravity Sense as well.

[TGLS]

I suppose you've already done something to warp to prevent them from just clearly visualizing home and teleporting back there even if they don't know where home is at all.


Surely the solution is to play golf and take multiple warps to close in on a point. Heck, even if the Astrogation roll would be crazy hard (i.e. -10 or more), surely the super Warp could gather incredible information by triangulating from several locations (and thus with locations from several moments in time).

I do wonder if mixing "Telescope follows relativity" and "Teleporting wizard breaks relativity" is a good idea.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Surely the solution is to play golf and take multiple warps to close in on a point.

That seems like the best option. Take a rough estimate (based on current position, distance, and velocity) of where the target would have gone in 10,000 years, Warp 10,000 light years toward it, see how far off you were, adjust, jump another 10,000 light years, then jump shorter distances until you're close enough to be confident where it actually is.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by khorboth

For most things, you can get away with Roll required: Astrogation.

If you want realism, I'd have a roll for how much they are off by based on distance & familiarity. Unless they know how many stars went nova or collapsed in the last (distance) years, then they'll have some drift. 30 years of drift is nothing. But the Milky Way is 105k light years wide. 10k years could be real drift if your calculations are off because some stars are pulling wrong. And you just can't know about it.

On the other hand, we have to ask: Does this add to the fun? Would it be easier to just say: 2d-2 jumps to get where you're going?

I certainly hope so. I am in need of examining such abilities to enrich the setting and provide mysteries to a universe that is not what the societies of the PCs have believed it is. There will be a lot of discovery of new abilities driven by the players so understanding the difficulties from a Standard Model POV and examining the different means to accomplish - or deny - something by manipulating the rules of the Universe (ie Cosmic This and That) bears looking at. I would really like to engage the players' sense of wonder about the vastness of space before reducing the trip to induce a nova in W51 to a couple of dice rolls.